Ryo stood up, pulled an object from his waist, and raised it in front of them. Immediately, Katsuo and Hozumi knelt. The lady behind Hozumi was confused, but seeing Hozumi's response, he knelt, too.
The object Ryo took out was a royal seal. He didn't have to explain further, as Hozumi finally understood the situation. They stood up as soon as Ryo strapped the seal back around his waist.
"You can go home. There's nothing to worry about. These people are from the palace," Hozumi told the female villager. Despite her hesitation, he took Hozumi's advice and left.
"Why have you come?" Hozumi asked Ryo.
"We are looking for the ultimate weapon to crush the Shogunate," he responded, although it was apparent he didn't know what to look for. Their order was to go to the mountain and confirm a strange rumor that had reached the emperor many years ago.
"What weapon? Where is it?" Hozumi asked, which somehow surprised Ryo as he was expecting him to know.
"You don't know?" Ryo asked, confused.
Hozumi paused upon realizing that Ryo was assuming he knew about this weapon.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What's your mission exactly?" Hozumi replied. Ryo was taken aback by the way Hozumi had spoken.
It sounded as though he was used to hearing the word mission. Either he had heard it before—for instance, the convoy sent here years ago and died—or he'd use it himself.
"You can tell me. I don't trust the shogun either," Hozumi explained, surprising Ryo but eventually putting his mind at ease.
"Our mission is to find this village and investigate a powerful weapon. We don't know what weapon that is, though. Only the emperor knew.
The order I received was from my superior, not directly from the emperor, and I doubt my superior knew about it, too," Ryo detailed.
"I see. I don't know of such a weapon, either. And what could it possibly be? This is a typical village. We are hunters and farmers. The only weapons we have that I can think of are our hunting and harvesting tools.
Are you sure it's in this village? Is it possible that it's somewhere else on the mountain?" Hozumi inquired. His confusion and obliviousness seemed genuine.
"That's what we need to find out. And we must hurry?" Ryo said.
"Why are you in a hurry? Did something happen?" Hozumi asked.
That was when Ryo realized that Hozumi wasn't aware of what was happening outside the village. And it made sense since they'd been living sustainably for years.
It's possible no one had gone down the mountain for a long time. And that thing that had taken Noboru must have been preventing foreigners from reaching the village.
"We're at war, Hozumi-san. We want to put an end to the
Kamakura Shogunate," he said, shocking the chief. His reaction seemed a bit excessive for a village person.
Ryo had talked to many regular people about the state of the country and the emperor's plans to bring the Imperial House back into power, and they couldn't care less. But Hozumi seemed more shaken than he had expected.
YOU ARE READING
Saving Touma
Mystery / ThrillerWhen the past and the future collide, chaos follows. Lives from different worlds intertwine and dance in a perpetual loop. The victim? An innocent child whose future would remain uncertain and cost many lives to retrieve. The key to all of this is a...
